Built in 1872 and originally called the "Red Brick School House of School District 21" its name was later changed to the Freeman School. In a classroom measuring 20x26 feet, teachers taught local children of all ages during the years 1875 until 1967. The exterior walls made of locally made red brick are are original. When students graduated, they often carved the graduation date and there initials in the bricks. Some of the bricks are dated as early as 1875 and as late as 1948.
Teachers at Freeman School were young, sometimes younger than the oldest students and their salaries were low. Most of the teachers over the years were housed by families of the student’s.
The Freeman School was furnished with locally crafted objects and wooden desks having fold-down seats that were manufactured in Indiana. Starting in 1881 and a decade before it was mandated statewide, the school provided textbooks to students beginning in 1881.
The school was also the focus of an important court case in deciding the separation of church and state. Daniel Freeman, the first American homesteader, asked teacher Edith Beecher to stop using the Bible as a textbook to teach his children and she refused. He then filed a lawsuit and three years later ruled in his favor stating that religious instruction violated the separation of church and state.